It is well known that fishing weights or sinkers are attached to fishing line to submerge the fishing lure or bait in the water so that fish will be attracted to it. In the years since monofilament fishing line has become universal, a variety of means have been used with varying success to attach said weights to the line. Crimping of weights requires a tool which frequently becomes lost or corroded. Reusability of crimped weights is limited and also requires a tool. Knots are relatively difficult to tie and ineffective. Usually such knots must be cut when it is desired to change a weight.
Therefore, various inventions have previously been directed to alternative means of attaching fishing weights and other accessories to fishing line. These include Wright, U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,486, which includes a protective coating to prevent damage to the fishing line and optionally hooks on either end thereof for attachment of the line. Another example of attachment means includes Hoyle, U.S. Pat. No. 3,192,662, which requires the weight to be fabricated from a flexible material, thereby reducing its specific gravity. Rader et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,077,184, is actually for a fishline float and it includes split guides or loops or eyes on either end and a converging roll in a radial longitudinal slot. Radar et al., would seemingly permit movement of the device along the length of the line since there is no assurance that the fishing line would remain wedged far enough down in the converging walls of the slot.
Olsen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,069,802, illustrates a fishing sinker having an embedded clip which would provide for ease of attachment and detachment, but even less assurance of movement along the line than Rader et al. The closest known art is Bittaker, U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,792. Bittaker employs the concept of utilizing lead or another heavy material surrounding a resilient interior material utilized for attachment to the fishing line and removability therefrom. However, Bittaker suffers from several limitations which are overcome by the present invention. These include the fact that the core element of Bittaker must have substantial resilience resulting from compressibility in order to permit the insertion of a fishing line down through its serpentine slit, that resilience and compressibility resulting in substantially reduced gripping power of the device to maintain its position on the fishing line. The nature of resiliently compressible substances make the Bittaker core element far more subject to wear, with an even further resulting loss of gripping ability. Moreover, the construction of Bittaker makes it clear that a large quantity of core material is necessary in order to produce a serpentine slit of sufficient length to restrain the line from coming free therefrom, and of sufficient width to provide some gripping power on the line. This also necessitates a large size for the weight, making the invention of Bittaker impractical or extremely fragile in small sizes.